How to Build a Fish Pond
Many people keep fish as pets, or raise large numbers of fish for food or sale on the market. Fish ponds are a great way to make a home for fish to live in. If you plan to build a fish pond for your backyard or for a small business, here are the tools and steps you need.
Designing a Fish Pond
The first thing you need to do is to plot a design for your fish pond. Small water gardens can be easily built over the course of a few weekends, but commercial fishponds can take months to build. Designs and blueprints for fishponds can be downloaded from the Internet, or sourced from books and fishkeeping magazines.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing your fishpond:
Choose the right location. Fish are very sensitive animals, and many environmental factors can affect the survival rate of fishes. Read up on the needs of the fish you plan to raise; consider factors like water temperature, shade, and aquatic plants that may be toxic for them.
Keep the pond level. It is easier to work on a fish pond plotted on level ground, and the cleanliness of the water and the health of the fish would be easier to maintain.
Stagger depths. Fish need room to move around. Instead of digging the pond to have a single depth, it’s important to have multiple depths.
Steps
To build a fish pond, follow these steps:
Find a level surface that matches the needs of the fish you plan to raise.
Mark an outline for the fish pond.
Dig the deepest part of the fish pond first, followed by the middle shelf, and finally the shallowest shelf surrounding the fish pond.
Get rid of rocks, lumps of soil, and other uneven surfaces.
Set up the filters, skimmers, and other devices needed for your pond.
Install pond underlay, which you can buy from home and garden supply stores. You can cut the underlay to size with garden shears, a sharp pair of scissors, or a utility knife.
Install rubber liner, which can also be bought from home and garden supply stores. It’s best to keep the liner as smooth as possible, although some ridges and folds can also help foster the growth of aquatic plants.
Stone, gravel, or decorative slabs of concrete can now be laid on the shallow shelf of the pond.
Fill the pond with water and add aquatic plants.
Add the fish to the pond. You may want to add nutrients, vitamins, and other additives to the water to help the fish grow healthier.
A well-built fish pond can help you raise fish better, whether you’re raising pet fishes or into raising fish as a business. With these tips, you can build your own backyard fish pond or water garden quickly and easily.